


between the salt water: timestamps and additional scenes

by CloudCover (RainyForecast)



Series: between the salt water and the sea strand [2]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Adoption, M/M, Timestamp, Weddings, alternate POV
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 20:45:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15227547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainyForecast/pseuds/CloudCover
Summary: Timestamp forbetween the saltwaterZhenya swipes at his eyes and tries to stop feeling so overwhelmed.It keeps happening though, every time he meets Sid’s eyes, his husband’s eyes, sparkling in the candlelight. Every time Oona orbits back their way to clamber into Zhenya’s lap and tell him about the cake or whine at Sid to fix her flower crown because it’s slipping down onto her face.





	1. The Wedding

Their reception is just at the local grange hall, but Cath and Vero have draped the room in twinkle lights that are reflected back from the polished boards of the 1930s era dance floor. Candles glow all over the tables, in a hodgepodge of glass containers. It’s the wrong season for flowers, and they didn’t want to spend any money on a florist, but someone’s cut a bunch of greenery: fir, pine, and juniper. The fragrance it sends up is spicy and fresh. 

 

Zhenya would have been happy with only the beautiful selkie ceremony yesterday and the clinical court appearance this morning. Hell, he would have married Sid on the moon if that had been the only option. This celebration is a blessing above and beyond the unimaginable happiness of becoming Sid’s husband, and it’s already made Zhenya cry three times. 

 

Oona is running around with Flower and Vero’s girls, all of them dolled up in frilly dresses, flower crowns threatening to slip from their hair as carefully arranged pins and curls start to give up the ghost. Little Alex Letang keeps trying to hold Oona’s hand, to much amusement among the adults. 

 

Flower, Kris, and Vero all make speeches that alternate between making everyone laugh until they cry, and cry until they laugh. Zhenya makes a gallant attempt to say a few words in thanks, but his English and his composure both break down and Sid kisses his cheek warmly and finishes their thank-yous while Zhenya swipes at his eyes and tries to stop feeling so overwhelmed. 

 

It keeps happening though, every time he meets Sid’s eyes, his  _ husband’s _ eyes, sparkling in the candlelight. Every time Oona orbits back their way to clamber into Zhenya’s lap and tell him about the cake or whine at Sid to fix her flower crown because it’s slipping down onto her face. 

 

This is Zhenya’s  _ family _ now. 

 

His only pang of regret is that his parents can’t be there, but the money just isn’t available and since they couldn’t have come to the selkie ceremony, he hadn’t wanted to make them fly all the way out for a courthouse affair. Sidney has offered to tell them about the selkie thing, but Zhenya isn’t sure the time is right. They have seen Sid and Oona over Skype dozens of times, and he knows they really like them, which is enough for now. 

 

Zhenya leans over to kiss Sid’s temple, and Sid smiles Zhenya’s favorite version of his smile at him. The kind that crinkles the corners of his eyes with happiness. 

 

“Hey,” Sid says quietly. “How’s it going, Mr. Crosby-Malkin?” 

 

Zhenya ducks his head, feeling his cheeks flush at hearing his new last name. “Oh, pretty okay. Marry some guy, having okay party.” 

 

Sid throws his head back and laughs, because for some reason he thinks all of Zhenya’s dumb jokes are actually funny. He leans forward to press his lips to Zhenya’s, a kiss that starts chaste and goes on for long enough to elicit a flurry of wolf-whistles from their friends and family. When he leans back, Sid is beet red but grinning. Zhenya takes his hand and lifts it, showing off the wedding band around Sid’s finger. 

 

“I put ring on it!” he crows, and everyone cheers. 

 

***

 

Eventually, Flower, of course, stands up and rings a spoon against a glass for quiet. Hags turns down the music. 

 

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Flower intones, to some groans and a “Keep it short Fleury, we want to  _ dance _ !” from one of Sid’s cousins. 

 

“This will be short, but oh so sweet,” Flower continues. “Sid, Evgeni, you know how thrilled we all are that you two found each other. We know you’re perfect together, and that you and Oona will be an awesome family.” There is clapping and some whoops of agreement and Sid squeezes Zhenya’s hand under the table. 

 

Flower continues: “We also know that nobody works harder than Sid and that this fu-fellow wouldn’t take a vacation unless he was tied up and kidnapped. Evgeni, we’ll leave that to you.” 

 

More wolf whistles. “Oh,  _ god _ ,” Sid says, while Zhenya just laughs. And Flower goes on.

 

“We heard you guys were being ‘sensible’ or some sh— stuff. And that was unacceptable. So we took it upon ourselves to make sure you start your marriage off right. We’re leaving the wheres and whens up to you, but here we go. From all of us.” He hands an envelope to Sid with a flourish. Sid takes it with trembling hands, and opens it. He makes a shocked inhale and hands it off to Zhenya and presses his hands to his eyes. Zhenya looks in. There’s a check for about five thousand dollars inside. 

 

“And this is for your honeymoon,” Vero calls out. “Sidney Patrick, if you even think about putting it  towards a payment for the new boat I  _ foresee _ that you’ll be in a world of trouble.” Everyone laughs, even Sid, wiping his eyes and looking overwhelmed. 

 

Zhenya beams and looks around the room at everyone’s happy faces, and once again marvels at how fortunate he is. 

 

***

A few days later, they have the chance to talk about what they want to do with the money. It’s a day off for them, but since they’re used to getting up at ungodly hours for the boat they’re already awake at five am. They’re going to make Oona pancakes but that can wait until a more reasonable time. For now, they lie curled together in the pre-dawn gloom, quietly talking about the future.  

 

“I want…” Sid says, and trails off. Zhenya is trying to train him out of the habit of not being direct about what he wants but it’s a work in progress. He waits patiently for Sid to formulate what he wants to say. 

 

“I want to go to Europe,” Sid finally continues. “All the places you’ve been. Well, not all of them. But your favorites. I want to meet your friends and see the places you were before you came here.” 

 

Zhenya’s chest feels warm thinking of wandering through his favorite haunts, seeing his favorite old faces. Just infinitely better this time around, because he’ll be sharing everything with Sid. 

 

“We have such good time, Sid. Show you everything, show you best. Then after, we come home. To best place of all.” 

 

Sid kisses him, deep and sweet. “Exactly,” he says, and pulls his husband close for a few precious moments more before their day begins. 

 


	2. Vero knows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s not as clear as people seem to think, the knowing. Sometimes it is.

 

It’s not as clear as people seem to think, the knowing. Sometimes it is. 

 

She can still remember the first time she looked over at Marc-Andre, during third period biology, and felt the still heaviness of certainty settle in her chest. They’d been all of fifteen, Marc-Andre a jumble of skinny limbs and big brown eyes and goofy antics. He’d asked her out a few times and she’d always said no. Sure, he was cute, in his own way, but he was just….Marc-Andre from down the street. 

 

She kept her foresight to herself, just stayed as friends. She let him take her to a school dance senior year, and his hands had shook just a little on her waist when he’d posed with her for pictures on her parents’ staircase. The careful way he’d slipped the corsage on her wrist and the way he’d looked at her during the slow songs made her heart beat a little faster, and made that certain feeling in her chest feel even stronger. 

 

But it wasn’t until her first trip home from university until she really accepted it. She’d...missed him. She hadn’t expected to miss him. He’d stayed behind to work on his dad’s boat, and she didn’t see him until she took a walk down to the marina. Not to see him, of course. She had a lot of friends who worked there. Of course.

 

It had been June, the sun out. He and Sid had probably been fishing shifted. They had their shirts off and were yelling at each other cheerfully as they hosed the deck off and stowed gear away. 

 

Vero had stood there like her feet were rooted to the boards of the dock. In her mind, Marc-Andre was still the weedy boy she’d said goodbye to last fall. Her eyes traced the strength of his arms and his chest and she felt...a little faint. Uncertain, for the first time in regard to him. 

 

But when he caught sight of her it was like his entire body  _ lit up _ with happiness. 

 

“Vero!” he shouted, and vaulted over the gunwales to practically sprint up the dock. He skidded to a stop in front of her, looking like he’d swallowed the sun. 

 

“You’re back,” he said beaming. 

 

_ Now _ , the little voice inside her had said, and she had reached up, taken his face in her hands, and kissed him. 

 

Vero just knows things, sometimes. Not the hows and whys. Just when things fit, when the puzzle pieces match and the time to press them together is now. The days when, even though the weather report is fine, the guys need to keep the boat in her slip and stay home. 

 

She’d hated Steph from day one, and she’d been unable to sleep the whole night before the day she showed back up in town to dump Oona in Sid’s arms and leave. 

 

She’d known from the moment she saw Evgeni smile at her with an armload of books that he was meant to stay. She’d known from that first morning in the diner that he was meant to stay with Sid. 

 

Sometimes? Vero just knows. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me as [knifeshoeoreofight](http://knifeshoeoreofight.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and as @RainyForecast on Twitter. Come say hi!


	3. and then there were four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey Stacy,” Sid says, answering the phone with a wrinkle of confusion between his brows. “What’s up? Everything okay?” He listens for a few minutes, and Zhenya can just hear the tinny sound of her voice as she speaks, staccato and clipped. Sid’s face goes slack with surprise. After a while he says he needs to talk to Zhenya and hangs up. He sits there for a moment, looking dazed. 
> 
> “What?” Zhenya asks, concerned. “What’s happen?” 
> 
> “There’s a baby,” Sid says.

Sid’s family on his mom’s side is big. Cousins and second cousins and cousins removed and frankly too many people for Zhenya to keep track of. 

 

Apparently Sid has a cousin (or a second cousin?) who works in social services in Halifax. She calls them at home, late one evening. They’d been getting ready for bed. Oona had been tucked in hours ago. 

 

“Hey Stacy,” Sid says, answering the phone with a wrinkle of confusion between his brows. “What’s up? Everything okay?” 

He listens for a few minutes, and Zhenya can just hear the tinny sound of her voice as she speaks, staccato and clipped. Sid’s face goes slack with surprise. After a while he says he needs to talk to Zhenya and hangs up. He sits there for a moment, looking dazed. 

 

“What?” Zhenya asks, concerned. “What’s happen?” 

 

“There’s a baby,” Sid says. “Someone left him at the police station in Halifax a couple hours ago. Stacy managed to get assigned to pick him up, because he’s Mer. Can’t keep shifted, keeps going back and forth. She says she doesn’t know what to do; she needs to place him with a foster family that knows about, you know.” 

 

Zhenya’s heart leaps. They’d been through the foster family vetting process last year, just in case. But then there’d been payments on the new boat, then a lousy lobster season. Their half-formed plans had been put on hold. 

 

Sid looks at Zhenya. “You’re at home a lot more.” It’s true. Thanks to, as he likes to remind Sid, a more rigorous Russian secondary education, he’s got a better head for numbers then the rest of their crew. Also, he’s better at charming good wholesale buyers and intimidating the potentially stingy. He brings ice chests filled with fresh seafood to farmer’s markets and apparently he has a knack for charming yuppies and tourists as well. 

 

So he’s been spending a lot of time doing that, or surrounded by papers in their little office, answering the phone and networking. Staying ashore also gives him the opportunity to do things like pick up Oona from her AM kindergarten class. 

 

He has the time to be home with an infant. And if he does go out on the boat, they have Sid’s family, and any number of friends they can rely on. The money has been good this year. He knows Sid yearns for a big family, more children,  as much as he does. 

 

“She said she thought of us right away,” Sid says softly, picking at the duvet, and Zhenya knows exactly what they’re going to do. 

 

“Call back,” he says, reaching over to gently turn Sid’s face towards him. “Tell her we come get, whenever she need.” 

 

Sid kisses him, hard and fierce, then dials. 

 

***

He’s four months old, as far as anyone can guess, and he doesn’t have a name. His wailing has a strange, unearthly pitch to it and sometime he doesn’t have legs but a shiny, floppy silver tail that needs to be blanketed in seawater-soaked towels. At night they mix salt meant for marine aquariums into a bathtub full of cold water, and put him to bed in it, wrapped loosely in strips of felt meant to feel like kelp fronds. Zhenya frets but Cath assures them this will feel the safest and most comforting to him. 

 

The first time he smiles for them is at Zhenya, when Zhenya is walking the floor with him one particularly fussy night. Sid was up with him all of last night and tonight it’s Zhenya’s turn. Zhenya had been singing a song from a Russian children’s cartoon to him, because he’d run out of lullabies. 

 

He ends it with an exaggerated silly face, and to his shock, the baby breaks into a smile and a few full-body, hiccup-y baby giggles. 

 

Sid wakes up to the baby being laid on his chest by a weepy Zhenya. 

 

“He laugh,” Zhenya says, through elated and exhausted tears. “I sing him funny song from Cheburashka cartoon and he  _ laugh _ , Sid.” 

 

Sid’s hair is sticking up and he blinks at Zhenya like a confused owl. “Huh? He wha—” 

 

Zhenya wipes his eyes. “Watch.” He leans over Sid and the baby and starts the song once more. When he makes the funny face, the baby again smiles a gummy smile and hiccup-giggles. 

 

“Oh my god,” Sid says, and it’s all they can do not to cry so hard they set the baby off again. 

 

***

His adoption papers read Anatoly Evgenevich Crosby-Malkin. At home he is just Tolya, and he is loved. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me as [knifeshoeoreofight](http://knifeshoeoreofight.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and as @RainyForecast on Twitter. Come say hi!

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me as [knifeshoeoreofight](http://knifeshoeoreofight.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and as @RainyForecast on Twitter. Come say hi!


End file.
